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27th Olympic Games Sydney 2000 |
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The 27th summer Olympic Games will last from September 15th until October 1st. 10,200 best sportsmen from 200 countries in the world, including representatives of Poland, will participate there. The Games will be held in 28 sports disciplines. Taekwondoo and triathlon will be included in the Olympic programme for the first time. The preparations started in 1993, when the International Olympic Committee granted the right to organize the Games to Sydney during its session in Monte Carlo. Australia already has Olympic traditions. Its representatives participated in the first Olympic Games in 1896 and they took part in all summer Games in Athens. Moreover, Australia hosted the Olympic Games sportsmen during the 16th Summer Olympic Games in Melbourne in 1956 for the first time. The Polish Post issued the first series of stamps at the occasion of the Olympic Games that year. On the day of introducing the stamps into the market, there will be sold a first day envelope with a special date seal in the Post Office Warsaw 1. |
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20th Anniversary of the foundation of Solidarity |
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On August 31st, 2000, the Polish Post will introduce a postal stamp commemorating the 20th anniversary of the foundation of Solidarity into the market. The Independent Self-Governing Trade Union "Solidarity" (NSZZ Solidarno¶ć) was founded at the turn of September 1980, as a result of a social disappointment with the deteriorating economic situation of the society and the way of realizing the authority by communist governments. During the second half of 1980, mass worker's riots took form of strikes organized at first in smaller industrial centers, and then in bigger cities. They reached the peak point at the Seaside, where a sit-in started in the Gdańsk Shipyard on August 13th, while on August 18th there was formed the Intercompany Strike Committee in Szczecin. State authorities, forced to take up negotiations, reached agreements with the workers on strike. The Gdańsk Agreement of August 31st contained, for instance, the government's consent to create independent trade unions. NSZZ Solidarno¶ć was founded and the National Conciliatory Commission chaired by Lech Wałęsa was formed during the meeting of representatives of strike and foundation committees in Gdańsk on September 17th, 1980. Since the moment of its foundation, the Union was an undesirable phenomenon for authorities of the People's Republic of Poland. After the imposition of the Martial Law in 1981, it was delegalised. Solidarno¶ć was, however, rebuilt, in the underground form. It was legalized again in April 1989. The Solidarity movement of August 1980 functions as a symbol in the social conscience. It was an extraordinary, bloodless social unrest, which led to basic system transformations in Poland. On the day of introducing the stamps into the market, there will be sold a first day envelope with a special date seal in the Post Office Gdańsk 1. |
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Activities of the Salesian Society in Poland |
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"Education of good Christians and honest citizens" is the main task of the Silesian Society. It conducts educational works directed towards young people, especially poor ones, alone, in need of a special care. In order to realize the task, there were systematically opened vocational schools, grammar schools, educational centers. The so-called oratoria were created in all Salesian houses. They organized classes for children and adolescents to fill in their free time. Their development was hindered during the Second World War and the political system of the People's Republic of Poland. The Silesian Society is running ca. 40 educational centers at present: vocational and grammar schools, boarding schools, universities. There is, e.g., the Salesian Institute of Christian Education in Warsaw of the pedagogical profile and the Salesian Academy of Economy and Management in ŁódĽ. In order to commemorate activities of the Salesians, the Polish Post will introduce a postal stamp into the market on August 25th this year. There is represented the image of St. Jan Bosko, Founder of the Society, surrounded with adolescents. On the day of introducing the stamps into the market, there will be sold a first day envelope with a special date seal in the Post Office Warsaw 1. |
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St. Mary Sanctuaries: St. Mary from Różanystok and Licheń |
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The Polish Post will introduce into the market another 2 stamps from the cycle of St. Mary Sanctuaries on August 14th:
On the day of introducing the stamps into the market, there will be sold two first day envelopes with a special date seal in the Post Office Licheń Stary and Post Office Różanystok. |
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200th Birthday of Piotr Michałowski |
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Piotr Michałowski, chief representative of the Romanticism in the Polish painting, was a person of a versatile, not only humanistic education. He treated the painting as his private passion, which he subjected to whenever the circumstances allowed him to do so. He was born on July 2nd, 1800, in Kraków. He came from a rich, noblemen family. He studied mathematical, natural, economic, and historic sciences at the University in Krakow (1815-20) and Getting (1821-23). He made mainly drawings and aquarel paintings under the influence of Alexander Orłowski and C.J. Vernet during the period of his amateur creativity until 1832. He was in Paris in the years 1832-35, where he studies in the workshop of Mikolaj Charlet and in various museums, where he studies works of Spanish painters (especially Velazquez), Dutch, and Flemish painters. He also had his own studies in … municipal slaughterhouses, where he studied the anatomy of horses. He was especially keen on drawing and painting horses, horse carts, stage-coaches, cattle. He created dynamic battle scenes from the Napoleonic wars (several versions of the Somosierra battle) and the November Uprising. When he was under the influence of Napoleon, he painted several portraits of him on horses and sculptured a design of his monument. Later on, portraits of chiefs, e.g., Stefan Czarniecki, Karol Kniaziewicz, the artist's children, boys, or his employees, prevail in his creativity. The artist died on June 9th, 1855, in Krzyżtoporzyce near Krakow. The creative output of Michałowski includes more than one hundred oil paintings, hundreds of aquarels and drawings. His biggest collections are housed in the National museum in Kraków and Warsaw. Kunsthistorische Museum in Vienna and Luvre have his works abroad. The works presented in the stamps come from the Warsaw collection. They are the following:
On the day of introducing the stamps into the market, there will be sold two first day envelopes with a special date seal in the Post Office Kraków 1. |
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National pilgrimage to Rome |
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This year we are participating in a great historical and religious event: the Jubilee of the Year 2000. The Conference of the Episcopate of Poland held its 300th session in Gniezno on April 24th, 1999, and it decided to make a special character of the jubilee events in Rome and organize a National Pilgrimage in the first decade of July. The very determination of the pilgrimage called "national" has a great importance. We have been going to Rome to meet the Pope for over 20 years, but none of the pilgrimages to the Eternal City has ever been named "national". This time, its participants will be from among representatives of the nation, believers of the Catholic Church and other communities of religious people, bishops, and representatives of Sejm, Senate, executory authorities, and local self-governments. The most important events will be held on July 6th and 7th. During these days, the Pope will meet the pilgrims at a special audience. The Eucharist will be held in St. Peter's Square on July 6th at 6.00 p.m., during which there will be sung Te Deum Laudamus (We praise you, Holy Father). The events are referred to by the stamp of the value of PLN 0.80. A celebrious Eucharist will be held the following day in the Basilica of St. John in Laterna, St. Paul, and the Great God's Mother. A special, jubilee misterium of the Saint Cross will be held in Colosseum, where first Christians died, during which there will be taken an oath of the faithfulness to the Cross, the Bible, and the Church. The second stamp of the value of PLN 1.55 refers to this event. The Polish Post will commemorate this event by means of an issue of two postal stamps, representing:
The logo of the pilgrimage is placed in both stamps. On the day of introducing the stamps into the market, there will be sold a first day envelope with a special date seal in the Post Office Warsaw 1. |
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